The U.S. Army has discovered a remote control gun turret that works, and cannot get enough of them. The army wants over 9,000 CROWS (common remotely operated weapon stations), but is only getting 15 a month. There should be about a thousand CROWS in service by the end of the year.

The idea for CROWS has been around for nearly half a century. Years of tinkering, and better technology, eventually made the remote control gun turret effective and dependable. CROWS us a real life saver, not to mention anxiety reducer, for troops who drive through bandit country a lot, and have a turret mounted gun (usually in a hummer). The guy manning the turret mounted machine-gun is a target up there, and too often, the bad guys get you. Not with CROWS. The gunner is inside the vehicle, checking out the surroundings on a computer monitor (with night vision and telephoto capabilities). CROWS also has a laser rangefinder built in, as well as a stabilizer mechanism to allow more accurate fire while the vehicle is moving. The CROWS systems cost about $260,000 each, and can mount a variety of weapons (M2 .50 caliber machine-gun, MK19 40-mm automatic grenade launcher, M240B 7.62mm machine-gun and M249 5.56mm squad automatic weapon).

But there's another reason, not often talked about, for the success of CROWS. The guys operating these systems grew up playing video games. They developed skills in operating systems (video games) very similar to the CROWS controls. This was important, because viewing the world around the vehicle via a vidcam is not as enlightening (although a lot safer) than having your head and chest exposed to the elements, and any firepower the enemy sends your way. But experienced video gamers are skilled at whipping that screen view around, and picking up any signs of danger. Iraqis are amazed at how observant CROWS is. Iraqis tend to just wrote this off as another example of American "magic." But the troops know better. Video games can save your life.

The Army has a huge online multiplayer first person shooter out for free called America's Army. The file size is almost 1Gig (takes forever to download), but the cd can be picked up at any recruiter's office. It utilizes the same weapons our troops have in the field. You have to go through basic training to play online, and it is tough. This is one of the reasons why we have some of the best soldiers in the world.

5
posted on 03/13/2006 1:18:02 PM PST
by ibheath
(Born again and grateful to God.)

I remember an NCO who used to always go on and on about the laziness and worthlessness of the "Nintendo generation" of soldiers. But oh, how confused he was by our advanced navigation and communication equipment! And he had NO trust in the CROW systems.

After seeing how efforlessly our younger troops and NCO's could navigate, communicate, and defend convoys, he seemed to lighten up a little on all of us young whipper-snappers :)

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